November 2011 - Grocery Challenge

meg72

tessie_bear wrote: »

last time dh and i shared a big bag of chips he paid £2.40:eek::eek: wepaid £5 for a 56lb sack....im going to make my own in future

Know just how you feel, I always do hm chips but when my grandson comes to stay it has to be chippy chips at £1.40.Think I wouldhave died onthe spot if it had been a fiver.:eek:

MissOrganised1972

I love to cook but I only ever follow recipes. I am currently making a Chilli con Carne from Jamie Oliver's Happy Days book. I have doubled the recipe & so have the following bubbling away on my stove:

900g minced beef
4 onions
2 garlic cloves
4 tins of tomatoes
1 large red chilli
a few spices
2 jars of sun dried tomatoes (blitzed in food processor) with the 1/2 the oil from one of the jars
2 wine glasses of water

Towards the end I will be adding 4 cans of drained red kidney beans.

I want the recipe to stretch further and so have (very bravely) added 6oz of 'no soak' red lentils. I just wanted to know if a) I could add any more lentils than that and b) do I need to add some extra liquid (perhaps a mixture of red wine & water) to compensate for the lentils and any liquid they may absorb!

Thanking you all in anticipation

recovering_spendaholic

SallyHat wrote: »

I beans.

I want the recipe to stretch further and so have (very bravely) added 6oz of 'no soak' red lentils. I just wanted to know if a) I could add any more lentils than that and b) do I need to add some extra liquid (perhaps a mixture of red wine & water) to compensate for the lentils and any liquid they may absorb!

Thanking you all in anticipation

I would probably add about 2 cups of extra liquid - I would use stock cube stock, otherwise it might be a bit tasteless. The lentils will soak up a lot of the liquid you have in there.

Am hoping for a NSD today. Breakfast was porridge for me and whoopsied croissants from the freezer for kids. Lunch was a bagel with the last of my chicken and mushroom in sauce from Sunday, plus a little bit of l/o cheesecake for afters.

Dinner tonight will be meatballs and spaghetti for kids and I might have tinned salamon salad, as I don't want to have pasta after having a bagel for lunch. I had forgotten how much I liked tinned salmon - I hadn't had it for ages and found some in the cupboard the other week and loved it!! Now I get it if I see it on offer - it makes a nice change from Tuna.

Can't believe that I've spent £142 of my budget as I seem to be very low on meat in the freezer - it's stuff like toilet rolls, feminine products (three females in the house!!), washing liquid (even though I buy the Aldi Almat I still go through LOADS) and dog food which take up alot of my budget ATM.

I still haven't got anything in for Christmas - I daren't buy tins of sweets yet as I would just eat them (I know I know but I recognise the fact that I have no willpower whatsoever), and the same goes for mince pies or other goodies. I am going to go to Tesco and get the ingredients for Christmas cakes tomorrow as I have four to make this year, plus I have to make some cupcakes for a baby shower at the weekend so the 3 for 2 will come in handy!

tessie_bear

hi.....with the tesco 3 for 2 on jam and baking do u have to put 3 through and pay to make sure the till doesnt knock off the cheapest eg if i got x2 bonne maman at £2.00 then x2 strawberry @75p then x2 value marmalade @27p.......would it knock off 27p twice ??

im trying to work out my strategy to buy a few:eek:

thank u

ebayqueen_2

I think you would have to pay for them in 3 lots. I wouldn't chance it knowing Mr T

ebayqueen_2

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

I still haven't got anything in for Christmas - I daren't buy tins of sweets yet as I would just eat them (I know I know but I recognise the fact that I have no willpower whatsoever), and the same goes for mince pies or other goodies. I am going to go to Tesco and get the ingredients for Christmas cakes tomorrow as I have four to make this year, plus I have to make some cupcakes for a baby shower at the weekend so the 3 for 2 will come in handy!

You are not on your own. I have already ate a large box of thorntons ...If I buy anything more I am going to give them to hubby to hide them or they will not survive:rotfl:

MissOrganised1972

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

washing liquid (even though I buy the Aldi Almat I still go through LOADS)!

I'm not sure if you saw my post on a previous grocery challenge (Sept, I think)? I have bought a 10kg bag of crushed branded laundry tablets from eBay. The bag cost me £6.99 plus £9.99 postage. The eBay description reckons 350 washes! If you buy more then the postage reduces by £5 & so worth buying with a friend. You can buy bio or non-bio! this is the link. Think there are others on eBay too:)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10KGS-TOP-BRAND-CRUSHED-WASHING-POWDER-TABLETS-/140630009885?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item20be33a81d#ht_3420wt_922

sproggi

I second SallyHat.
I bought 3x10kgs of the crushed tablets (same stuff, different seller) for £30 and have found it great, not only does it clean perfectly, not clog the drawer up because it is much finer than powder, but it is saving me a fortune.
As SallyHat says, it is supposed to do approx 350 washed with one eggcup full being equal to 2 tablets, but I only use half the amount for lightly soiled washes.

Sproggi

Rainy-Days

Sainsbobs £65.27

:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

But to be fair they had a big box of Ariel 80 wash box on for £10.00 which is a bargain price actually!!

angelatgraceland

rej-c wrote: »

NSD for us today as far as GC was concerned.

However, Him Indoors was kind enough to offer to head out into the dark to get chip-shop chips to go with his whoopsied chicken kievs and my fake chicken burgers. Unfortunately, our friendly neighbourhood chippy was closed [we don't go often enough to know their opening days/times], so he stomped off to the next nearest fish and chip shop, figuring it was worth trying another one out to see if it was worth having as a back-up.

Result: guy in the shop took ages to serve him because he had his back to the door and was online shopping, but when he did get served, two large portions of chips = £5 :eek: - and they weren't that great, either.

So, that's our treats budget blown for the week... but at least we know not to bother getting anything from there again

That is VERY expensive if it was just chips!!! We live in an expensive area but ours are nowhere near that!:(

I've just emptied out my fridge and peeled and sliced all of the carrots I bought last week which will not get eaten otherwise as I bought a few more today! They are now in bags in the freezer. Sorted out the "bits" of salad stuff and popped it into a tub for someone to simply add some meat or something to it for lunch. Kept a couple of carrots and used up half a tin of toms and the last inch of tomato puree along with 3 pieces(halves)of onion people had left in the fridge and boiled it all up to become spicy carrot and tomato soup. Just added water, 2 stock cubes and some chilli and it is yummy!
Also saved the last 3 eating apples which had gone soft in the fruitbowl. Boiled them up with some sugar and a drop of water and served with cream-made 2 portions. I feel better now! Some waste this week but all of the above ingredients saved!!!
Visited a new Mr A today but was rather disappointed as there were very little in the way of "smartprice" items-only the midrange and above so I think Mr T will get me in that town. There were some very cheap battery chickens for about £2.50 each but not what I wanted at all. Anyway-I don't NEED anything! I did top up on fruit and veg though to the total of about £5.50